Thomasville, GA | The Night Hawks Men's and Women's Swim Teams are in Columbus, GA for the next three days to compete in The Sun Conference Swimming Championships.  The event will be held at the Columbus Aquatic Center.

Looking at the teams, the Thomas Men are ranked 10th nationally, while the Women sit in the 22nd position.  In the Men's division, five of the top twelve teams, in NAIA, lie in The Sun Conference:  1-Keiser, 2-St. Thomas, 5-Savanannah College of Arts & Design, 10-Thomas, 11-Life, and 12-Loyola.  The goal for Head Coach Don Feinberg is to see as many swimmer as possible qualify for the NAIA National Swim Meet, to be held the first week of March, in the same location.  A total of 140 Men and 160 Women will qualify for the national meet.  Each swimmer may swim in a total of three individual and five relay events. 

The Night Hawks who should qualify for nationals, and are looking to solidify their ranking this week include:  Tim Brown (50 freestyle), Emil Schildhauer (100 breast stroke, 200 breaststroke, 200 individual medley), Jofre Mataro (100 backstroke, 200 backstroke, 200 individual medley), Ethan Kilgore (100 butterfly, 200 butterfly), Diego Alonso (100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke), Imme Bousema (200 breaststroke) , Aspen Shipp (100 butterfly, 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke), and Anna Van De Keere (400 individual medley, 500 freestyle, 1650 freestyle).  Chase Parman (200 butterfly) and Francisco Visiedo Pereira (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle) are currently on the outside, looking in, but hope to swim well enough at the conference meet to be invited to the national meet.

Coach Feinberg's goal, at the conference meet, is to establish new team records, against, arguably, the fastest competition in the NAIA.  Look for the 200 and 400 medley team records at Thomas to be challenged this weekend.  New individual records and personal bests are also in jeopardy against this fast field.  On the Men's side, Thomas is looking to be one of the top three teams in in conference.  

The selection show will be available online at www.naia.org on February 23 at 5PM.  For up-to-date information on this meet and other TU Athletics, visit http://www.TUnighthawks.com.